First things first.

Yesterday was, "Meet the Teacher" day at Country Lane Elementary for our oldest boy, Mr. Titus Andrew. He's starting Kindergarten on Friday and will be in testing today. Not sure what they will be testing, but I feel confident that my little boy is more than ready to start school. I'm not sure I'M ready for him to start school, but he's ready especially after yesterday.

As we walked the halls of his new elementary and Kendra's and my new elementary (in which we'll be lurking about until Teensy gets our of 5th grade which will be in about 9 years...I'll be on a scooter by then I'm sure) I couldn't help but be reminded of my days in school and the excitement of the first day of school. For me, it was a big event not because I would meet new friends or make new friends, but because it mean school lunch, new clothes, new supplies, and the bus ride with Matt, my one and only elementary friend.

My parents never let me wear the new clothes until the start of school. "Those are for school...no you can't wear them." I would always get three new pair of jeans, seven shirts, two packs of underwear, two packs of socks, new shoes, and a belt. We usually went to Sears for clothes or JC Penny. I can still remember the smell of my room with all those newly dyed clothes fuming up the place. Oh how I loved that smell. I didn't want to wash my new clothes before I wore them because I wanted people to know I had new clothes. I almost always got t-shirt (not many with printed stuff just basic colors and stripes) and not polo type shirts. My jeans were those Sears tough skin jeans. I found this photo of an ad in the Sears archive. I owned one of those leisure suits...hey it was the 70's and Dennis Weaver (McCloud) was cool!

Toughskin jeans are a phenomenon, let me just tell you. I think they are made with barbed wire and steel cable because these suckers are super...well tough. Wearing toughskins new was an experience because they were stiff as all get out. When you sat down in your toughskins they would sometimes pinch your parts and boy did that hurt, especially the back of your thighs. No matter the pain I had new jeans and was going to show them off. The flip side of this is that you have to wash toughskin jeans no less than 650 times before any fading begins to occur, and another 3004 times before they begin to feel worn in and comfortable. Kevlar has nothing on toughskin. My jeans were bright blue, no other color was acceptable because they wouldn't be blue jeans now would they?

Every Sunday my Dad would read the lunch menu for the week to me and I hung on his every word. "Monday: Pizza, golden buttered corn, cookie, milk." "MMMMMM" "Tuesday: Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, seasoned greed beans, congealed salad, milk" "OH MMMMM that will be a good one can't wait for Tuesday." I went on like that every Sunday until 5th grade. I loved school lunch. I loved that every little thing was in it's own little compartment. I loved those lunch ladies all dolled up in their white suits. My lunch ladies all wore their own aprons and not the plastic ones of today. They were so nice, but I had the meanest nastiest grandmother--ever so lunch ladies seemed like Marry Poppins to me!

Me and sis always had to get ourselves up and ready for the bus. Mom and Dad were long gone by the time we rolled out of bed. My dad, in elementary school, would always lay out my clothes on the recliner. He laid them out as if someone had been wearing them and disintegrated. I could probably have figured out which sock to put on which foot and which shoe went on which foot, but it was really cool to know my Dad did that for me. I am pretty sure he ironed them everyday because I now know how he is about wearing clothes that aren't wrinkled and I must say I am the same way. Except when I go to Mildred's because she only owns an iron that's been converted to crafting purposes...and I'm sure she's given up on her ironing board long ago for more space to keep her duke.

I hope Titus has a great experience at school. I plan to be a presence at the school, helping in his classroom, helping with PTA and other things at the school. I just don't want to drop him off and be gone, I want to be there. I plan to have lunch with a lot and just spend time with him, when he doesn't' have time for me. That will be ok because I'm going to love watching him not have time for me. I wonder if a mother bird feels pride in watching their babies fly for the first time? I'm going to love watching him fly and at the same time my heart is going to be in sheer agony knowing that this little boy...this baby I bathed and lubed up and fed and took care of everyday before he went to Miss Diane's house is no longer.